Tommy Cummings – R.I.P.

Although he was only to be at the club for a season-and-a-bit, I do have memories of a ten year old fanatic being excited at the arrival in the summer of 1967 of Tommy Cummings after our relegation to Div 2 and the dismal performance by Dick Taylor (better shopkeeper than football manager). Cummings made several signings and although they were all dismal failures ultimately, for a young Villa Lad it was great stuff and we were surely going straight back up – how naive of me… First there was Tommy Michinson who came from Cummings’ previous club, Mansfield, where he had been a bit of a hero. He wore the #8 at the Villa and then didn’t do alot although I remember he looked quite doing so…Then T.C. bought in the B.G.’s – Brian Godfrey and Brian Greenhalgh from Preston. This was very exciting and Godfrey was a solid player, and captain, for a few seasons. My favourite memory of these two was being at Villa Park with BlueNoses, Stephen (who had unforgivably changed from Villa to Blues after our relegation) and David Prentice and their Dad, Mr. Len Prentice. I’m not sure why they were there but needless to say they wanted Blackpool to beat us (and cheered when the Seasiders scored, much to my anger and frustration). However, it finished 3-2 to Villa and I think the B.G.’s scored a couple of the goals to add to an impressive start at the club. Godfrey was great that day and almost supplanted an injured Alan Deakin as my superhero! The Argus headline was “Villa B.G.’s do it again” and I’ve never forgotten it… Unfortunately, their positive start did not last. We finished not far from the bottom of Div 2, including a 2-4 embarrassment at home to the BlueNoses in front of over 50,000, which has some value if only for the diabolical tackle made by Edwards on BlueNose hero Johnny Vincent – they should have had a penalty I can now admit over forty years later… Despite adding the likes of Dick Edwards, Tommy Ferguson, Oscar Arce, and Barry Hole (“he’s here, he’s there, he’s every f***in’ where”) in the off-season, Cummings departure was inevitable after a poor start to the 1968-69 season, which again included a defeat to the BlueNoses (0-4 at St. Arthur’s) – very tough to take at my new school (H.G.S.) where it was a tense, equal parts Villa, BlueNoses and WBA, unlike a comfortable Birches Green Junior School which had been 60-30, Villa to BlueNoses (10% Spurs and Man U glory chasers). He was replaced by the ‘Messiah’, Tommy Doc following “The Revolution” in November 1968… I spoke with my Dad today and he remembers (I don’t) that we were at Cummings’ last game, along with 13,372 disgruntled others, as we went down 0-1 to Preston. My Dad did not attend the ‘Revolutionary Meetings’ of the ensuing weeks but I remember how much they were talked about in our house with my Villa Granddad who lived with us and my Uncle Roland, my Dad’s older brother – not a shy man! Thanks for doing your best, Tommy, it was a no-win time at Villa Park in every sense and whilst my memories are quite vivid they are not happy ones…R.I.P. Steve of Withers, Wright, Aitken, Chatterley or Park, Sleeuwenhoek, DEAKIN (I was wearing an old #6 jersey of his to sleep in at the time), MacLeod or Rudge, Mitchenson, Greenhalgh, Godfrey, Anderson (the next George Best)…